Totally made to see my brilliant colleague & friend Juliana Mensah recognised as one of the 2026 @newwritingnorth.bsky.social Jerwood Fellows. Can’t think of a more deserving recipient - and can’t wait to read her new novel, follow-up to the amazing Castles From Cobwebs. Congrats to the others too!

In happier news: GALETTES.

With respect, I would like to know what such students would have had universities do instead, under that very specific set of unprecedented circumstances. Something that abided by the law, protected the vulnerable, and also fulfilled their consumer expectations. I’m listening.

This is emblematic of the consumer culture that fees have engendered. What the hell did the students expect? It was a ONCE IN A CENTURY PANDEMIC. There were LAWS against congregating in public. Staff worked themselves to the bone to get online delivery working. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Let’s. Resubscribe. To. The. MLA International Bibliography.

Could it BE any more cottage?

The Valentines content we all need

I'm very happy @abojournal.bsky.social's #DH section is up and running again! Thanks to @allisonmuri.bsky.social for reflecting on The Grub Street Project's 20th anniversary and to @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social for reviewing @books-borrowing.bsky.social!

I think GenAI could be great in the classroom if you want students’ responses to literally everything to be “oh, ok.”

You're not producing a novel with AI. You're using an algorithm powered by other people's stolen novels to lie and pretend you're a writer. Being a writer requires WRITING, you pathetic fucks.

You guuuuyyyys, Reading With The Burneys got reviewed in Women’s Writing! “A fascinating micro-history in the print ecology of the long Romanticism, reconstructed with critical acuity…a useful lens through which to reinterpret an entire cultural landscape…” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Has anyone had a bout of Covid recently that left them very short of breath? I’m slightly scared bc such a noticeable difference even though it doesn’t seem like a gp-worthy thing (I’m not unable to breathe, just out of puff after climbing stairs which is *not* my usual MO).

In case you didn't catch it in last Saturday's print edition, my review of Irish Romanticism: A Literary History by Claire Connolly is now up on the Irish Times website. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Having carefully set up an out of office and forward for my Leeds email account, it looks as if the University has simply shut it down. Can friends and followers please get the word out that I am still contactable for history-related messages and queries at jessicameyer1 @ gmail.com. Thank you!

Hearing it might be Ben Swain.

I’ve had the unenviable task of writing some reviews lately for which it was hard to find words both true and kind, so it was a DELIGHT to be invited to review @books-borrowing.bsky.social for @abojournal.bsky.social. Review free to read here: digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcont...

(from www.instagram.com/nobodyssweet...)

Help, I have tumbled down an early-modern-country-dance-tune rabbithole. Tag urself - I'm My Lady Winwood's Maggot.

Britain feels more and more like a middle aged man who walked out on his family because he wanted to enjoy the company of multiple young ladies and now tries to convince himself he has won because he gets access to the children once a fortnight and three Only Fans subscriptions.

Added it to Chrome and can verify it works, thank god

So not that I’ve been thinking about this all day, but, has anyone leaked that First Dance video yet?

I have come to the realisation that 90% of being an effective adult consists of not replying to an email straight away.

Honestly one of the most terrifying things I’ve read in a long time - how often is this happening and decisions being made on the basis of AI hallucinated information??

Of course, if you were a really committed tween fan back in the 90s, you just pirated your own Calvin & Hobbes, erm… bin

George III in 1804:

Friends, I hope you’ll share this widely. The @jcblibrary.bsky.social is hiring 2 3-yr research associates for collaborative work on religions and freedoms in the early Americas. Info is here and I’m happy to take questions offline: brown.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff-...

Ok

You have seen how the Ladies feel about the cheeky fox in the jaunty hat, and yet

I cannot tell you how excited I am about our new MA in Creative Writing, taught by wonderful colleagues in English and Arts and Creative Technologies at York. Please spread the word widely!

If you’ve got an itch to develop your creative practice across page, stage and screen - then we have a brand new MA programme that might just interest you. Come & learn with my colleagues & I in beautiful York! Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested www.york.ac.uk/study/postgr...

As I make my way sweating & cursing through an archive of the worst 18thc handwriting I’ve ever had to deal with… it’s nice to find a cheeky epigram from one of my subject’s mates indicating that they had trouble too

Huh. Turns out, if you write a little article about Jane Austen you get some awfully odd emails

La Mathilde is seven. We love her more than sleep itself.

Are YOU serious about your high quality Christmas bread and pastries? Join the 7am queue, pal

Seven years ago, getting ready for bed, I set this alarm on my phone. Still can’t bear to delete it.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve from me and this spiced pomegranate mezcal margarita

Jingle Bell Heist is TERRIFIC. I laughed! I felt warm and cosy! I genuinely gasped at the twist!

Christmas came early when this pleasingly chunky lad plopped through the letterbox this morning. So good to hold in my hand the proof of, well, the best part of a decade’s work, really. Hope @bsecs.bsky.social members enjoy reading about Mary & gang over a festive tipple. bsky.app/profile/soph...

A wonderful write-up of the best exhibition I saw in 2025- AUSTEN & TURNER: A COUNTRY HOUSE ENCOUNTER at Harewood House. If you couldn’t make it to Leeds to see this extraordinary “what if…?” extravaganza in person, then reading this article is very much the next best thing.

My book on the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834) was published yesterday. It has been a long time in the making, but I've loved every minute working on such incredible material. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

😍We are rejoining Erasmus. Official announcement tomorrow😍 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Alas! Wonderful producer emails to say that the Baronetage stuff didn’t make the cut on Front Row… but you can still tune in to hear me disagreeing with John Mullan about Austen’s nastiness and giggling hysterically/fangirlishly at Harriet Walter’s readings

To celebrate the annual switching on of the out-of-office: chocolate martini.

Also for the Austen 250th, @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social and I are thrilled our article about Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter is published today in a very special issue of Persuasions On-Line. Working on this exhibition was the highlight of my year. jasna.org/publications...

Outlandishly, I'll be discussing this research (& other things) on Front Row this evening with Samira Ahmed, Tessa Hadley, Kamila Shamsie, Harriet Walter, & John Mullan. Unless I end up on the cutting room floor, which given the company would be entirely understandable. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Happy 250th birthday, Jane Austen! Why not celebrate by reading my hot-off-the-press lil piece which sheds new light on the composition process for JA's greatest novel (no questions, sit yo ass down) PERSUASION. It involved archival sleuthing, so was cracking fun to write. jasna.org/publications...

Considering taking up religion specifically to believe in hell.

Oh heeeey. I've just seen that my two research articles on Mary Hamilton in this volume are now available via open access (pre-print versions) on @uoyopenres.bsky.social research repository! At time of initial skeeting, they were still embargoed. Go get 'em! (or, as ever, message me for PDFs). (1/3)

WINTER Term Card: We are excited to share our seminar schedule for next term! Our slate of speakers cover a range of #18thc British history topics. Registrations are now open (with paper abstracts) at the link below 👎 @ihr.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Excuse me while I have a little lie-down, because I got to work with Harriet bloody Walter today